This invention relates to a drum cutter mining machine which is an assembly of separate component parts and equipped with a winch that is either coupled with a separate drive motor therefor, or coupled to a drive motor used for rotating drum cutters; the arrangement of parts being such that the mining machine has at least one drive wheel at an end thereof to engage a toothed rack or chain extending along the course of travel for the mining machine to produce the traversing motion of the machine along a mine face while the cutter drums are driven to work the mine face.
A drum cutter mining machine of this same general type is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,067,620 which issued to the Assignee of this invention. In this known drum cutter mining machine, the machine body consists of a number of separate constructional units rigidly joined together. The units include two cutter heads stationed at opposite ends of the machine body with each cutter head being provided with a pivot arm equipped at its end with a cutter drum. The constructional units of the machine also include a winch and a drive motor located between the two cutter heads. The drive motor supplies the necessary torque for rotating the two cutter drums and the winch. A drum cutter mining machine of this type, especially when such a machine is equipped with an additional housing to accommodate an additional drive wheel, has a relatively large overall length and because of its length, it is difficult to introduce the mining machine into the relatively low and narrow region of a longwall mine face belowground. The constructed length of the machine also impairs maneuverability in the confined space of a mine face. Moreover, with this type of drum cutter mining machine, there is a relatively large distance between the respective cutter drums and the drive wheels used to produce the feed motion along the mine face. This is because one of the two cutter heads is always located between the cutter drum and the drive wheel located at the winch or on a special housing. As a result, there is always a relatively large distance between the support runner and the cutter drum because the support runners must always be mounted in the plane of the drive motor shaft in order to insure that the teeth of the drive wheel mesh with the teeth of the rack. The stability of the drum cutter mining machine is impaired due to the overhanging cutter drums.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,594,043 discloses a drum cutter mining machine having winches which are coupled to a drive motor to produce the necessary feed motion of the mining machine through a reduction gear which takes the form of a planetary gear system arranged coaxially with respect to the chain drive wheel of a winch.